Attorney General Maura Healey visits Middleborough High School to talk to students about opioid abuse, underage drinking and vaping

Jon Haglof Editior @GazJonHaglof

Tuesday

May 8, 2018 at 11:30 AMMay 8, 2018 at 11:30 AM

MIDDLEBORO — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey visited Middleborough High School last Friday as a guest of Middleboro Matters and the Sachems Supporters, two local groups currently thick in the fight against opioid addiction and substance abuse.

Healey led what was billed as a “round-table discussion” which examined students’ ground-level view of the longstanding opioid addiction and overdose crisis and any number of other influencing factors enticing young people today, including the increased popularity of vaping as an alternative to smoking cigarettes.

“It was inspiring,” Healey said in a short interview at the conclusion of the event. “I think that for us to really deal with this it’s gonna take something like what’s going on here in Middleboro, where you have the whole community coming together. These young people are really leading the way and it’s great to have these conversations.

“For me, it’s really important to be out with people who are on the front lines, and hearing from them, speaking with them directly and listening to their stories. That’s what should drive our work and drive our policy.”

What’s happening in Middleboro is a multi-layer approach to alerting and educating young people in the community about the pitfalls of substance abuse, which often begins, so say the Sachem Supporters, a group of MHS students serving on the front line in the effort, with the innocent dabbling in this or that in the midst of everyday social life.

The Sachem Supporters have taken on a number of projects pertaining to substance abuse and underage drinking this year, including the current Sticker Shock campaign, which aims to remind adults of the very real legal consequences of providing alcohol to minors (see more on A3 of this week’s Gazette), and a photography project cataloging common, real-life scenes with a story to tell about drug abuse, alcoholism and the surrounding temptations.

The former serves as a reminder that young people can make a tangible impact in the fight, while the latter is more of a conversation starter — and the conversation, and resulting avenues of discourse, are a powerful tool for groups such as the Supporters, which are bubbling to life at many area high schools, according to MHS School Adjustment Counselor and a co-advisor Jason Carroll.

“The kids are doing a great job and it’s a hard conversation to have," Carroll said. "It’s the popular thing in high school. You go to a party on a weekend and it’s all there."

The Sachem Supporters are there to equip their peers with the knowledge and confidence to sidestep the temptations, he said, and hopefully avoid difficulties down the road and/or later in life.

Carroll says the discussions he's observed involving the Sachem Supporters — and he insists the group is entirely self-propelled, that he's there to advise only when needed — reveal that drug use and drinking often start casually but can quickly become a "coping mechanism" for the variety of stresses in the life of a high schooler.

"It puts a band-aid on things, but there is going to be a point where that band-aid no longer works and you up the ante and say, 'Well, I need to try something else,' because the weed or whatever it is is no longer working for you."

Of course, fitting in is a constant source of stress for most.

“We’re trying to show that you don’t have to do this to fit in or to be cool, that you don’t need drinking and drugs to fit in, and show them that it’s really not cool and steer them away from it and educate them on what might happen if they go down that road," said MHS senior Cassie Levesque, president of the Sachem Supporters,

“It’s definitely really prevalent and we see it a lot in high school, like our peers and friends who are doing it, and a lot of people look up to them and want to follow with that,” Levesque said. “There’s people who say it’s not bad if you’re just having one drink at a party or it’s not bad if you’re smoking weed just one time, but they don’t know how it can build up and actually completely ruin your future.”

Of course, the current opioid epidemic, worsened by the emergence of fentanyl in recent years, is front and center. And while stories of overdoses often lead the daily news and the abuse and related social ills show little sign of slowing, high school and even middle school are facing a landscape in which medical marijuana is old news and recreational marijuana is soon to be on sale at a retailer near you and where the long-fought health crisis of tobacco and cigarettes has been replaced by the widening popularity of vaping.

Herein are mixed messages, no doubt.

“I definitely see mixed signals,” Levesque said. “A lot of people who are trying to get off cigarettes are vaping, and they think it’s a safe alternative. They tell us all the time it’s not a big deal, but then you see these people trying it, and when they talk about how nice it is and how easy it is and how it can help you, it’s actually teaching other kids that it’s OK and they should be fine with it.”

But Levesque is optimistic and understands there is a lot of work to be done.

“I feel like we don’t get to see the results of what we’re doing, yet, but we’re putting the information out there and helping the best we can right now.”

The Sachem Supporters are the student-led branch of Middleboro Matters, a local group founded in 2015 with the guiding mission “to bring the community together to strategically prevent and reduce substance use and abuse among youth and adults in Middleboro,” and whose members include Middleboro Police Chief Joe Perkins and Middleboro Fire Chief Lance Benjamino along with a long list of local first responders, Middleboro Public Schools staff and local business owners and residents. In the two groups, working together with local police, first responders and a growing number of concerned residents, Healey said she sees a useful model in the continuing and ever-evolving fight against abuse and addiction.

Taking the fight one step beyond is the Here Project, backed by Healey and the GE Foundation and further supported by Health Resources in Action, Epicenter Experience, and the Herren Project. The Here Project makes substance abuse education available to every public middle school in the state, and was recently installed at Nichols Middle School in Middleboro under the guidance of Assistant Principal Greg Thomas, who was in attendance at Friday’s event.

“The only way out of this is through prevention and education, and giving young people and students the tools and the resources they need — in the absence of a statewide curriculum on substance use prevention," Healey said.

That’s why my office stepped in, and I’m really excited that we’ll be in every public middle school in the state. And I want that to grow. We’ve got to be giving young people everything we can in terms of prevention and education resources.

“Look, whether it’s pills, alcohol, heroin, vaping ... it really is the gamut and the key is making sure we’re giving people and young people the education, teaching them to make healthy decisions and making them feel good about themselves. A lot of this is about self-esteem, confidence and health and wellness. So how do we give young people that foundation at an early age? And that’s really what I’m focused on."

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